•Asks Nigerians to protest President’s move
to head PC
Former
Vice-President of the World Bank for Africa, Mrs. Obiageli Ezekwesili, has
flayed President Goodluck Jonathan for presiding over contract award sessions
during the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meetings, calling on Nigerians to
resist the President’s move to chair the procurement council.
Ezekwesili
spoke yesterday while delivering a keynote address at an interactive session
among the House of Representatives Committee on Public Procurement,
stakeholders, ministries and agencies of government.
The
address of the former Minister of Education, which was punctuated by applause
from the gathering, dealt in part with the danger of allowing a politician
without expertise in the procurement process to preside over contract awarding
meetings.
She
said: “A nation must decide whether it seriously wants to change or not. There
is no middle road to change; you cannot say you want to change and say at the
same time that you want to change, but you don’t want the change now.”
Ezekwesili,
in a veiled reference to Jonathan, queried: “For example, what business has a
President to sit with a contractor; that is not what your contemporaries do in
other countries. While other leaders in other countries are thinking about
development, others sit thinking about contracts”.
The
former minister, however, disclosed an alleged plan to make the President the
Chairman of the Council on Procurement, but urged Nigerians and lawmakers to
oppose the plan.
Stressing
that the chairman of the procurement council must be an expert and not a
politician, Ezekwesili said: “I heard and read that there is a legislation to
give the chairmanship of the council on procurement to the President, the
President does not need that. He should not allow that to happen to him.
The
head of procurement must not be a politician. I call on everybody to stand up
against any attempt to make the President the chairman of the procurement
council.”
Ezekwesili,
who said she had taken up a job in another country as an Economic Advisor, said
Nigeria was one of a few countries with a President awarding contracts.
She
said: “Ours is the only situation where you have that kind of thing (award of
contracts by a Head of State), United State President Barack Obama does not
call cabinet meetings to discuss contracts.”
The
former minister, however, urged the government to concentrate on delivering
results from its policies, instead of dwelling on the “mundane”.
In
his opening address, the House of Representatives Speaker, Hon. Aminu Waziri
Tambuwal, who was represented by the Minority Leader, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila,
said: “Nigeria has the highest number of abandoned projects. Since 2007, we
have not witnessed the full implementation of the Public Procurement Act. The
National Assembly will continue to insist that the Act must be implemented”.
Source: National Mirror
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